home remedies

pee on it
my Grandma said.
Grandma’s grandma told her that.
just
pee on it.

And with a shiver down my back in disgust I did, I peed on my chilblain in the bath. We didn’t have a potty I could dip my toe into so the bath would have to do and it worked very well. It stopped itching almost straight away and it was gone before I could think much more about it. The old folk had their remedies and a way of life we’d no idea of.

They had sex not different from us, just attitudes that were not quite the same, ideas were other and though life could be tough in 1800 Grandma’s grandma who knew about sex and bringing up children she knew about cures and herbs and what to do when a girl had been too young for sex.

Grandma’s grandma’s kitchen was something to behold when you came in. There were bottles on the kitchen table, bottles for this and bottles for that with yellow liquids or brown, essence of nettles and nettles in bunches, lavender and syrup of figs that she had made, jars of honey and pickles and herbs and dried ginger. Grandma’s grandma always knew what to do for what and anyone ailing or sad or sick would pay her a visit and leave a gift for her on the table before leaving for home, refreshed and nurtured, Grandma’s grandma had time for all who came to her door.

When Grandma’s grandma sat Grandma on her lap she talked to her about cures and whispered all her secrets in her ear. The walked hand-in-hand together when chores were completed. She looked out for Grandma when her mum was out working. They walked in the garden, picked daisies and made daisy chains and hung them about their necks, made daisy earrings and looked for herbs to dry to put in the basket made of young willow by my Great-great Granddad.

He’d coppice the willow and used the thick rods for the fencing to keep the wind off the garden where he grew cabbage and carrots, the thinner ones to make baskets for the Manor and others to sell to put a bit by.

He’d died far too young, got the fever and Grandma’s Grandma could not help him and had watched him die. They starved him and they purged him and they cut his vein with a knife to bleed him till his lips went pale….and then they burnt all that was still in the cottage as was the practice with the fever and Grandma’s grandma had to build her life anew to help with sickness and with health, to help the old, to help the young, to birth or not to birth, to cure the cough and constipation, itchy scalps and fungus under toenails, toes and fingers plagued by chilblains… she had saved the jar with what Great-great Granddad had put by and she remembered what her mum had said to her…

Grandma’s grandma’s mum had said..
just pee on it…
Grandma’s grandma told her that.
my Grandma said…
pee on it…